Three Retired Gangsters Will Open 48th Chicago Fest; Arkin, Pacino & Walken Are ‘Stand Up Guys’

Three Retired Gangsters Will Open 48th Chicago Fest; Arkin, Pacino & Walken Are 'Stand Up Guys'

The 48th Chicago Int’l Film Festival will open with “Stand Up Guys” on October 11, starring Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin and Julianna Margulies. Chicagoans Fisher Stevens directed and Tom Rosenberg produced. The Lionsgate film’s debut will receive an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run in NY and LA in December expanding throughout the country January 11.

Rosenberg calls the film’s leading men “a powerhouse trio on screen,” adding that “audiences are truly in for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” Chicago founder and director Michael Kutza says this is “without a doubt the most exciting opening night for the Chicago International Film Festival in many years.”

A synopsis for the action comedy is below. Chicago fest information is here.

Val (Pacino) is released from prison after serving twenty-eight years for refusing to give up one of his close criminal associates. His best friend Doc (Walken) is there to pick him up, and the two soon reteam with another old pal, Hirsch (Arkin). Their bond is as strong as ever, and the three reflect on freedom lost and gained, loyalties ebbed and flowed, and days of glory gone by. And despite their age, their capacity for mayhem is still very much alive and well – bullets fly as they make a hilariously valiant effort to compensate for the decades of crime, drugs and sex they’ve missed. But one of the friends is keeping a dangerous secret- he’s been put in an impossible quandary by a former mob boss, and his time to find an acceptable alternative is running out. As the sun rises on the guys’ legendary reunion, their position becomes more and more desperate and they finally confront their past once and for all.